Silva Fennica vol. 30 no. 4 | 1996

This study investigates the relationship between Finnish sulphate pulp export prices and international pulp inventories using the Johansen cointegration method. Long-run equilibrium is found to exist between pulp price and NORSCAN inventory for the study period, 1980-94. Granger causality is found to exist from inventory to price but not vice versa. A simple short-run forecasting model for the Finnish pulp export price is formed. In preliminary analysis, the explanatory power of model is found to be acceptable but only under stable market conditions.

• Toppinen, E-mail: at@mm.unknown
• Hänninen, E-mail: rh@mm.unknown
• Laaksonen, E-mail: sl@mm.unknown

This paper is an assessment of what in Finland are referred to as local forest management associations (LFMAs); the local units of a non-profit, forestry-promotion institution. First, the concept of organisational effectiveness is explored and an attempt is made to define it with respect to the LFMAs. The study then seeks to identify the environmental constraints, organisational characteristics and managerial practices differentiating the most effective and least effective associations. Discriminant analysis revealed four determinants of effectiveness: agrarian prosperity in the given area, activeness in marketing services to forest owners, the board of governors' role, and goal setting practices. The results thus indicate that the comparison of managerial policies and practices among LFMAs can provide useful information for improving their effectiveness.

• Viitala, E-mail: ev@mm.unknown

Growth data were collected from 40 European aspen (Populus tremula L.) stands growing on eight localities in Sweden. The stands ranged in latitude from 56 to 66°N. The mean age of the stands was 32 years (range, 12–63), the mean stand density 1978 stems ha^-1 (range, 300–6,000), and the mean diameter at breast height (on bark) 17 cm (range, 8–34).

Site index curves were constructed for total age. Curves for H₄₀ (dominant height at 40 years total age) were made for total Sweden. Curves fitted for H₄₀ total age have another shape than curves presented by other Nordic studies. The curves from the present study have slower growth for young aspens than curves from Norwegian and Finnish conditions. For 50–70-year-old aspen stands, curves from the present study indicate taller heights than from Nordic studies.

Classified soil types from the stands were grouped into three groups: sandy till (17), light clay (15) and medium clay till (4). As there was only one stand growing in the fine sand group and one stand in the heavy clay till group and two stands in the silty till group, these stands were not presented with growth curves. There were no statistically significant differences in site index between the three soil type groups. Some recommendations for management of aspen stand are given. Damages caused by moose, fungi and other injuries are discussed as a problem for height yield production and a good timber quality.

• Johansson, E-mail: tj@mm.unknown

The colonisation of a burned clear-cut by ants in southern Finland was monitored using pitfall traps, artificial nest sites, and direct nest sampling from the ground and stumps. Clearcutting and fire seemed to have destroyed wood-ant colonies (Formica rufa group), and also other mature-forest species suffered from fire. Myrmica ruginodis Nylander was able to survive only in less severely burned moist sites, whereas it benefitted from the enhanced light conditions in a non-burned clear-cut. The fire resulted in an essentially ant-free terrain into which pioneering species immigrated. The mortality of nest-founding queens appeared to be high. The results supported the hypothesis that the pioneering species tend to be those that are capable of independent colony founding, followed by species founding nests through temporary nest parasitism. The succession of the burned clear-cut differed from that of the non-burned one, suggesting that habitat selection in immigration and priority effects, i.e. competition, introduce deterministic components in the successional pathways of boreal ant communities.

• Punttila, E-mail: pp@mm.unknown
• Haila, E-mail: yh@mm.unknown

The prefire fungal flora (polypores and corticoid fungi) of 284 dead trees, mainly fallen trunks of Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) H. Karst.), was studied in 1991 in an old, spruce-dominated mesic forest in Southern Finland. Species diversity of the prefire fungal flora was very high, including a high proportion of locally rare species and four threatened polypore species in Finland.

In 1992 part of the study area (7.3 ha) was clear-cut and a 1.7 ha forest stand in the centre of study area was left standing with a tree volume of 150 m³/ha, and later on (June 1st) in the same year the whole area was burned. Burning was very efficient and all trees in the forest stand were dead one year after the fire. Also, the ground layer burned almost completely.

In 1993 the fungal flora of the 284 sample trees was studied again. Most of the trees had burned strongly and the fungal species diversity and the evenness in community structure had decreased considerably as compared with the prefire community. Species turnover was also great, especially in corticoid fungi. Greatest losses in the species numbers occurred in moderately and strongly decayed trees, in coniferous trees and in very strongly burned trees. Fungal flora of non-decayed and slightly decayed trees, deciduous trees and slightly burned trees seemed to have survived the fire quite well, and in these groups the species numbers had increased slightly as compared with the prefire community.

Fungal species suffering from fire (anthracophobe species) were mainly growing in moderately and strongly decayed trees before the fire, whereas species favoured by fire (anthracophile species) were growing in less decayed trees. No fruitbodies of threatened polypores or other "old-forest species" of polypores were found again after fire. Some very common and effective wood-rotting fungi (e.g. Fomitopsis pinicola, Fomes fomentarius, Antrodia serialis) survived the fire quite well (anthracoxene species). Species favoured by fire were mainly ruderal species which can utilize new, competition-free resources created by fire, and species that have their optima in dry and open places also outside forest-fire areas. Some rarities, e.g. Phanerochaete raduloides and Physisporinus rivulosus, were favoured by fire.

• Penttilä, E-mail: rp@mm.unknown
• Kotiranta, E-mail: hk@mm.unknown

Seasonal fluctuations in free polyamines, spermidine, spermine, putrescine and potassium concentrations were studied for two years (1992–1993) in three needle years of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) grown on a drained mire in western Finland. Seven different fertilizer treatments involving five different sources of potassium were used.

Putrescine concentrations were high in winter and in May but low in summer. High peaks in putrescine in March and May could be found in unrefertilized or rock phosphate treatments. Spermidine and spermine concentrations were high in March and May. In December spermine concentrations were low. Biotite increased the needle potassium concentrations less than the other potassium fertilizers but the putrescine concentrations or the putrescine/spermidine ratio to about the same level. This suggests that biotite, although very slowly soluble, can reasonably satisfy potassium nutrition of young pine trees.

The potassium concentrations of needles in all the fertilization treatments were higher in winter than in summer. The response of putrescine to the potassium concentration was strongly negative in all the needle years and sampling times. In March, May and December the response of putrescine to potassium was fairly similar in both years but not in June and August. The results suggest that the potassium concentrations during the growing season cannot be used for estimating the potassium nutrition of trees, because the variation between the years may be substantial, whereas the needle putrescine concentration or putrescine/spermidine ratio indicates the suboptimum potassium status of Scots pine fairly well. Needle putrescine concentrations over 500 nmol g^-1FW quite regularly coincided with a unsatisfactory potassium nutrition and concentrations over 1,000 nmol g^-1FW were a reliable indication of potassium deficiency. Putrescine/spermidine ratios below 5 indicated a satisfactory potassium nutrition in all needle years throughout the year.

• Sarjala, E-mail: ts@mm.unknown
• Kaunisto, E-mail: sk@mm.unknown